Press.



L. O. GONDUITT.

PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 11,1914.

Patented Mar. 9, 1915.

THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. PHGTOLITHOH WASHINGTON, D C.

LESTER 0. GONDUITT, OF EAST ST. LOUIS, ILLINOIS.

PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ltllar. 9, 1815..

Application filed May 11, 1914. Serial No. 837,637.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, LESTER O. CONDUITT, a citizen of the United States,residing at the city of East St. Louis, county of St. Clair, State ofIllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Presses,of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in presses which are particularlyadapted to compress cigars, after their manufacture, into compactbundles or groups preparatory to packing said bundles or groups ofcigars in boxes or other receptacles, and has for its object to providea cheap and convenient press of the character described which is simplein construction and easy of effective operation.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, inwhich like numbers of reference denote like parts wherever they occur,Figure 1 is a perspective view of a press embodying the presentinvention; Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line 22, Fig. 1;and Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the press, showing members in thecompression department for compressing the cigars into a circularbundle;

The press embodying the present invention consists of a frame which ispreferably of box-like construction made of any suitable material, such,for instance, as wood, said frame having a bottom 1, a back 2, and twoends 3 and 4, the front and top of the frame being left open for thepurpose here inafter described. A movable partition 5, which is slidablebackward and forward between the ends 3 and 4 of the frame, ispreferably of shape and size similar to said ends and positionedsubstantially parallel thereto said movable partition 5 forming with theend 3 of said frame an adjustable compression compartment 6 and, also,providing a surface for distributing pressure against a bundle or groupof cigars 7 placed in said compression compartment for compressing saidbundle or group of cigars. A member 8 is secured to one face of themovable partition by any suitable means and is arranged to extendthrough an opening 9 in the end 4 of the frame, being adapted to slidelongitudinally through said opening and being of sufficient length toextend beyond the outer face of the end 4 of the frame in order toafford a means for moving the partition 5 toward or away from the end 3of the frame to decrease or increase the length of the compartment 6. Inorder to guide the movement of the partition 5, a screw, bolt, or stud10 or the like is preferably secured to the bottom of the member 8adjacent to the partition 5 and is arranged to extend through alongitudinal slot 11 in the bottom 1 of the frame, there being a channelor rabbet 12 in each lower edge of said slot for the reception of awasher 13, which fits on the screw 9 and is held in the channels orrabbets 11 by the head of said screw as depicted in Fig. 2. By thisarrangement, the washer 13 affords a means for holding the partition 5upon the bottom 1 of the frame, while at the same time permitting saidpartition to be moved along the bottom 1, the head of the screw 10 beingadapted to move free from contact with the surface of a table, or thelike (not shown), upon which the frame may be placed upon its bottom forconven- 1ence in operation.

For the purpose of holding the movable partition in any adjustedposition relative to the end 3 of the frame, a spring-controlled device14 is provided, same being secured to the end 4 of the frame by screws15 or other suitable means. The spring-controlled device is preferablyof ordinary latch-bolt construction, as shown in the drawings, its bolt16 having a wedge-shaped nose 17, which is adapted to cooperate with theteeth 18 of a rack-bar 19, which is preferably secured to the top of themember 8 by screws 20 or other suitable means, each tooth beingpreferably V-shaped with the side facing the movable partition 5 beinginclined and the opposite side being substantially vertical. By thisarrangement, the teeth of the rackbar 19 allow the nose 17 of the bolt16 to ride freely over same, when the member 8 is moved inwardly to movethe movable partition 5 closer to the end 3 of the frame, but thevertical faces of said teeth interlock with the nose of said bolt andnot only prevent outward movement of the member 8 but, also, hold themovable partition in its adjusted positions relative to the end 3 of theframe.

A handle 21 of any suitable construction may be secured to or made partof the bolt 16 to afford a convenient means wherewith to lift the nose17 of said bolt out of interlocking engagement with the teeth 18 of therack-bar 19, thereby permitting the member 8 to be moved outwardly tomove the partition 5 away from theend'3 of the frame to increase thelength of the compression compartment 6. A linear measuring scale ispreferably graduated upon the upper edge of the back 2 of the frame forconvenience when adjusting the movable partition 5 to such position aswill compress the cigars inthe compres: sion compartment into a bundleor groupof such compactness as may be required to fit into a box orother receptacle (not shown) of known size. For instance, if a number ofcigars being compressed within the adjustable compression compartmentare being prepared for packing into a box seven inches long, the member8 is moved inwardly to advance the movable partition 5 toward the end.of the frame and, also, to cause the partition 5 to compress the cigarslaterally within the compartment 6 until said partition reaches a pointwhere the face thereof adjacent to the cigars registers in the samevertical plane with the seven-inch mark of the scale.

.In operation, a ribbon, tape, string 22 or the like is placed inapproximately the middle of the compression compartment 6 so thatit willlie upon the bottomof the latter and the loose ends of same will extendupwardly adjacent to the movable partition 5 and the end 3,respectively, as shownin Fig. 1. The desired number ofjcigars 7 is thenplaced upon the ribbon,- tape, or string 22 within the compartment 6 insuch manner as to make either one row or a plurality of rows, dependingupon the number of cigars to be packed and the size of the boX orreceptacle into which same are to be packed, the cigars being so placedin the positions relative to each other that theyare to occupy whenpacked in the box or otherreceptacle that an end of each cigar abuts theback 2, whereby the ends of all the cigars that abut the latter registerinsubstantially the same plane. The press with the desired number ofcigars in its compression compartment is now placed upon the platformorbase of a vertical press (not shown), which is ordinarily used in theoperation of packing cigars, so that the "compression compartment isdirectly below the ram of the vertical press and aboard or plate 23 orthe like is placed on top of the upper cigars within the compressioncompartment 6, after which the ram of the vertical press is loweredsufliciently to engage the board or plate 23 so as to prevent thecigarsfromrising while same are being compressed laterally between the end 3of the frame and the movable partition 5, it being, of course,understood that said board or plate is slightly shorter than the lengthof the space into which the cigars are to be compressed. The member 8 istheii moved inwardlyto dvance, the partition 5 toward the end 3' of theframe s'u'flicintly to compress the cigars laterally into a spacecorresponding in length to that of the inside length of the box orreceptacle, which is to receive the cigars, pressure being applied tothe board or plate 23 by means of 1 the ram of the vertical press, inorder to compress thecigars sufiiciently to reduce the height of thebundle of cigars until same corresponds to' the inside depth of the boxor receptacle. After the cigars have been compressedby lateral andvertical pressures applied thereto to form a compact bundle of properdimensions, as just described, the pressure of the rain of the verticalpress is released, and the board or plate 23 is removed to allow theribbon, tape, or string 22 to be tiedaround the compressed bundle,whereupon the bolt 16 is released from interlocking engagementwith therack-bar 19 to allow the partition 5 to be moved toward the end 4 of theframe so as to release the compressed bundle of cigars, and then thebundle is placed in a box or receptacle. The ribbon, tape, or string maybe left around the bundle of cigars after the latter has been placed ina box or receptacle, or, if desired, the ribbon, tape, or string may beuntied or cut and removed from the box or receptacle.

From the foregoing, it will be evident that a bundle of cigarscompressed in the manner described will have the proper shape to fit ina cigar box or receptacle of rectangular form, but it should beunderstood that in case it is desired to compress a number of cigarsinto a bundle having a shape to fit in a cigar box or receptacle havinga form other than rectangular, blocks of proper size and having suchfaces as will compress the cigars into a bundle having the desired shapemay be used in the compression compartment to accomplish this result.For example, if it is desired to compress a number of cigars into acylindrical bundle to fit in a cylindrical box or receptacle, a pair ofblocks 24," each having approximately a quadrocylindrical concave face25, may be placed in theflbottom of the compression co1npartment 6, oneblock 24: being adjacent to the end 3 of the frame and the other block24: being adjacent to the movable partition 5 so that the concave faces25 of said blocks will register with each other to form the walls of thelower half of a cylindrical compression compartment, a block 26 havingapproximately a semi-cylindrical concave face 27 being provided to formthe upper half of the cylindrical compression compartment in which thecigars can be compressed, after same has been filled with the desirednumber of cigars, by means of pressure from the partition 5 to move theblock 2 1 adjacent thereto toward the other block 24: and pres block 24and the concave face 27 of the block 26 into arcual alinement, as shownin Fig. 3, thereby compressing the cigars into a cylindrical bundle.When forming a cylindrical bundle of cigars, a ribbon, tape, or string22 may be used in the cylindrical compression compartment formed by theconcave faces of the blocks 24 and 26. Obviously, blocks having faces ofother desired shapes may be used to compress the cigars into bundleshaving any other desired shapes.

Among the advantages of preparing cigars for packing by the press ofthis invention is the advantage that the adjustable compressioncompartment 6 may be used as a convenient adjustable assembling rack forstacking a number of cigars in a group in the position, in one or morelayers or otherwise, that the cigars will occupy when inclosed in thebox or other receptacle wherein they are ultimately to be placed, and,more over, by means of the movable partition the lateral pressure upon abundle of cigars in the compression compartment may be appliedgradually, simultaneously or alternately with the application ofvertical pressure by means of the press ordinarily used in packingcigars. Furthermore, cigars compressed into a compact bundle of anydesired shape by means of the press of this invention and girded withthe ribbon, tape, string, or the like, as hereinabove described, may befreely handled, and each bundle may be packed single merely by wrappingit in a paper package or the like or two or more of such bundles may bepacked together in a paper package or the like instead of in the Unmet01 this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing thetin or wooden box container customarily employed, thus providing aconvenient package at a comparatively small cost.

Various changes in the details of construction and in the arrangement ofparts may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention.

I claim:

1. A cigar press comprising a stationary base, end pieces and a backmember, the back member having a linear measuring scale graduatedthereon, a guide in one of said end pieces, a partition slidably mountedon said base between the end pieces, a rack push bar secured at one endto the movable partition, and a pawl secured to one of the said endpieces above the guide cooperating with said rack bar to hold the saidpartition in an adjusted position.

2. A cigar press comprising a stationary base, end pieces and a backmember, a guide in one of said end pieces, a partition mounted on saidbase between said end pieces and having a pin and slot connection withsaid base whereby it is movable thereon, a rack bar secured at one endto the said partition while its other end portion extends through saidguide, and a pawl on the end piece having the guide, cooperating withsaid rack bar to lock the partition in an adjusted position.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence oftwo witnesses.

LESTER O. CONDUITT.

Witnesses:

Gnonen G. ANDERSON, NANCY C. THOMAS.

Commissioner of Patente,

amhllnmton, n. 0.

